How Can We Respond to the Earthquake in Haiti?

How can we respond to the earthquake in Haiti?

What comes to mind when praying about this recent event is this idea of devastation. And we can pray to know that our thought and our spiritual nature cannot be devastated. That we can indeed hold on to hope and the light that is always present in our thought. God’s love is always present and is loving, helping and assisting us. Good is not over and it doesn’t end. So even more than the picking up of rubble and the physical recovery of Haiti, we can pray to know that our spirits and no ones spirits can be “devastated”.

Life is God and our loved ones are always safe and secure in God. Jesus says that life eternal is the knowledge of himself and the Father. Therefore these dear ones are still living and going on. It is as though they have just taken a trip to another part of existence that we can’t go on right now. But they are well and they are safe and secure in God’s love.

And we can expect to be united in love and life right here and now. Life is still going on, and there is always freshness and newness to life. As the many groups of people and individuals go to Haiti to provide assistance, we see that life is rebuilding itself. There is always hope and newness and freshness and when we feel God’s presence we know this is true.

Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38)

This means that the love of God is not in Christ Jesus, per say, but that we know God’s love through Jesus’ life and example. Perhaps he was the master of the newness of life as he showed that even the hatred of the world and the Word of God could never separate him from the life that is eternal, the life that is God. He overcame the hatred and the grave and demonstrated that God is the only life and God’s love never ends.

And nothing can separate us from feeling God’s love. No matter where our thought is – even in the darkest places of grief, devastation, and fear – God’s love is able to access us; is able to reach us and to lift up our thoughts to higher thoughts, immortal thoughts which are God’s thoughts. Nothing can separate us from this light and love because nothing can separate our thought from God’s thought. God is always speaking to us and is always imparting hope, eternity, life, peace, fearlessness, and satisfaction.

As we learn about our true spiritual nature and our inseparability from God, we will learn that we are governed by God’s pure, perfect law of consistent, uninterrupted goodness. We learn that God’s law is the only law that governs us and therefore renders material or natural law null and void. As we become more in tune with the divine, listening and obeying God we will find harmony not only for ourselves but also for everyone.

God isn’t a mystery. God is the unchanging Principle of Good. And things like earthquakes seem to come about because mortals believe in another life and power and existence separate from God. They are dark images of mortal thought which seem to be power. But we can turn our thought to “the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.” Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

As we learn about the one reality that God created and made and that it is here and now, we can see that we live there now. Nothing can interrupt us from feeling God’s harmony and goodness. There is just one reality and as we turn our thought there now, we can experience that in our lives today.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures states,

“Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your
consciousness.”

We can be conscious right here and now of God’s perfect reality which is untouched. And as we are, we will carve that out in the human experience. But we never turn back to look at the human picture. We always keep our consciousness on what is good and true and eternal. This alone will manifest in all the help, resources, aid, peace, joy and happiness that we need.

For more spiritual articles on the earthquake in Haiti see these:

http://www.spirituality.com/article.jhtml?ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticle/Jan2010/1263414158.xml&ElementName=Prayers%20from%20Japan%20about%20natural%20disasters

http://www.spirituality.com/article.jhtml?ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticle/Jan2010/1263413320.xml&ElementName=From%20earthquakes%20to%20bomb%20scares%20%E2%80%A6%20prayer%20about%20the%20unexpected

Where can I find permanent security?

In today’s tough economic times, security seems to be a big question. Job security and financial security are terms we think about and, lately, worry about. People want to know that their homes and their families are secure, well cared for.

I was pondering the idea of insecurity this evening. Sometimes you hear someone described as insecure, meaning they aren’t very stable, may get offended easily, and feel vulnerable. This can lead to problems in our personal relationships, especially when we look to someone else to make us happy or feel secure.

I was asking myself if there is a spiritual solution to the notion of feeling insecure or insecurity. The opposite, of course, is security defined as “free from or not exposed to danger or harm; safe”. Wouldn’t we all love to feel this way all the time? When we can through our understanding of God and our relationship to Him. Psalm 91 tells us “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” That has always made me feel very safe whenever I think of that Psalm. The Psalm continues to tell us we are safe; that God is protecting us no matter what situation we are in.

As I began to think about this idea further, I realized that we feel insecure because of the false belief that we are material and therefore dependant on matter for life. From the mortal perspective, we are solely dependent on matter for the food we eat, the air we breathe, shelter, clothing, health, etc.

In the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures it states:

The description of man as purely physical, or as both material and spiritual,--but in either case dependent upon his physical organization,--is the Pandora box, from which all ills have gone forth, especially despair. Matter, which takes divine power into its own hands and claims to be a creator, is a fiction, in which paganism and lust are so sanctioned by society that mankind has caught their moral contagion. Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure and free, not needing to consult almanacs for the probabilities either of his life or the weather; not needing to study brainology to learn how much of a man he is. Mind’s control over the universe, including man, is no longer and open question, but is demonstrable Science.

When we understand God’s creation to be entirely spiritual and therefore man to be spiritual, immortal and eternal we discover that we are secure. I am amazed at how all the discordant conditions of the human experience come from a false sense of our Creator and how we were created. God did not create man through matter. Matter is a false concept of mortal thinking or belief. But when we exchange our thoughts for God’s immortal ideas, we are then governed harmoniously. And the outward manifestation in our human experience is security – health, supply, completeness, freedom from worry or of a future time when things may run out.

So where does our happiness come from? Again in Science and Health it states:

Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul.

And in another part of the book:

If living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no security, although God is good.

Therefore, our security does not come from how much many we make. You can see how that falsity drives people to be greedy and dishonest in the business decisions thinking “if only I had that much money, I would have nothing to worry about”.

Jesus tells a story in the book of Luke:

15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

He then follows with this famous passage in the Sermon on the Mount:

22 And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.
23 The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
24 Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
25 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
26 If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Therefore, if we are living in obedience to God, we can feel completely secure, knowing that the Father cares for all of his children. Jesus didn’t own anything or having a steady job, but I imagine that he probably didn’t feel insecure.

We can all take a page out of his notebook and understand that we are God’s spiritual creation, His offspring, and all that we want and need and desire comes from God. God is the only source and He wouldn’t have us looking to other things as though they are the source, since there is only one God.

So we can bid insecurity goodbye and be grateful that God didn’t create it and therefore we can not experience it.